April 17, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES
III • Page 13
Borough’s website rated second best in New Jersey
by Frank J. McMahon The Monmouth University Polling Institute and Graduate Program in Public Policy has rated the Franklin Lakes website as the second best in the State of New Jersey. The announcement was made at an awards ceremony held at Monmouth University. The ceremony was held to recognize municipalities that demonstrate best practices in using their websites to inform and engage residents. The top rating went to Monmouth County’s Middletown Township. “Municipal websites can be critical tools to inform and engage the public while creating efficiencies in the provision of public services,” said Kathryn Kloby, director of the Monmouth University Graduate Program in Public Policy. “Efforts to incorporate technology into public sector service delivery and public interaction need to be supported in order to promote best practices statewide.” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, added, “Websites are probably the single most important tool for citizens to find local information. According to a poll we conducted in 2011, Garden State residents are far more likely to visit a municipal website than to call or write a town official.” Web team members in Franklin Lakes include Franklin Lakes Borough Administrator Gregory Hart, Tax Assessor Secretary and Assistant to the Borough Administrator Lynette Sidoti, and Deputy Tax Collector Meena Sivakumar. According to Hart, this award was the culmination of a comprehensive research project that analyzed 540 municipal websites in New Jersey based on availability of content and ease of use. The research was part of an e-government project examining how New Jersey municipalities use their websites to inform citizens, provide services, and encourage public engagement. The project evaluated each of the 540 municipal websites based on 86 separate content items in four categories. They included information for citizens, citizen interaction, online government services, and social networking. “The Borough of Franklin Lakes, in addition to being recognized as having the second best overall website,” Hart said, “also received an award as one of the 10 best municipal websites for citizen interaction.” A congratulatory letter received by the borough explained that the borough’s website received high marks in nearly every category and was particularly noted for online access to citizen transactions. “It is gratifying to see our collective
Franklin Lakes Web Team members: Tax Assessor Secretary and Assistant to Borough Administrator Lynette Sidoti, Borough Administrator Gregory Hart, and Deputy Tax Collector Meena Sivakumar.
efforts recognized,” Hart said. “Our website work is all done ‘in-house’ and we take a lot of pride in the quality and content of our website. It starts with the mayor and the borough council’s support of all of our communications efforts and is continued by our Web team, all of whom have other primary
responsibilities. That effort is augmented by volunteer interns, in particular, college interns from William Paterson University, who put in time, thought, and effort. It is a great team.” Visit the borough’s website at www. franklinlakes.org.